Ninjas Best Friend
by CitricNitrate
Summary: What would the world be like if Naruto actually knew what a ninjas best friend was, and how to use his greatest tool? Rated T for now.


**I do not own Naruto. It would be seriously awesome if I did and I would owe someone big time if they could get it to me, but seeing how that's unlikely to happen I'll just write this instead.**

Ninjas Best Friend

The ninja's best friend and greatest resource is deception. The art of deception is often underestimated. With deception the person next to you can be your best friend or worst enemy. The hardest thing about deception, is knowing when to drop it.

Luckily for one Naruto Uzumaki the time had finally come. After years of humiliation and playing the fool his time had come. Last night a traitor to Konoha, namely Mizuki, had attempted to steal the forbidden scroll by trying to trick him into getting it after he had failed the graduation exam. Saying that it was a replacement test even though Mizuki had sabotaged his test in the first place. Yeah, nothing strange about that. But he had gone along with it anyway, just as his idiot persona would have. Everything happened according to plan, as he would have liked it to. Mizuki was caught and he was graduated to genin. It was only too bad that Iruka had to get hurt as well. He was one of the few people that Naruto actually liked. How Iruka was always the one that caught him Naruto wasn't sure but he had his suspicions.

It was because of all this he was finally able to drop his façade. That was why he was up well before the sun and making his way to the academy. He did not jump from roof to roof to be seen by the ANBU, the black ops of the ninja world, and he did not hurry down the road to be seen and scorned by the civilians. He walked calmly on the side of the road. He was not noticed by any of the few civilians that were awake so early, partly because he was not acting out of place and partly because of his new clothes. Gone was the vomit and blind inducing neon orange jumpsuit. Now he wore somewhat baggy dark grey pants tied off at the ends, a bluish black mesh shirt, covered by a black long sleeve shirt with pockets on both the outside and the inside made to store many different sized objects. On his hands were fingerless gloves mad for quick hand work, with reinforced knuckles. On his head, covering his shockingly bright and unruly hair was a black bandana that also served as a place holder for his new badge as a ninja. And on every single piece of clothing was an assortment of seals. Seals that could change the size and color of clothes, and for training the weight. But most importantly there were the storage seals. Storage seals that carried food, water, weapons, and an assortment of other things including materials to set up temporary shelter and traps.

It was dressed in this way that he found himself at the academy long before any students or even teachers arrived. IT was in this way that he made his way to the appointed classroom, to the very back, and into the darkest corner to await his fellow genin. In this way he hoped to get a feel on just who was truly ready to become genin.

The first to arrive was Shino Aburame. A clan heir talented in his family jutsu that tended to rely too much on said jutsu. Would work best as a scout. The only sign that he showed that he knew Naruto was there was a slight nod and to sit as far from him as possible. It was a well-known fact that the insects that he stored inside his body did not react well to his presence.

Next to enter was Choji Akimichi. Also a clan heir, he was a roundish boy with a body that promised lots of future muscle. Would fit well in a heavy assault team. He gave no sign that he knew Naruto was there and sat a couple rows behind Shino. At first Naruto was disappointed, until he looked down and saw a bag of Bar-B-Q chips by his feet. He couldn't help but smirk as he quickly pocketed the chips.

Third to enter was Sasuke Uchiha. The local heart throb, he was talented in both ninjutsu and taijutsu but tended to stick to his family techniques. Would work best as close-midrange assault. He was rookie of the year in that he did the best in both the practical and the written parts of the academy. However he tended to be introverted and thus proved to be no exception as he failed to notice Naruto in the room.

Soon after he was followed by a yawning Skikamaru Nara. Easily the most intelligent of the genin he was also without a doubt the laziest. He spent no considerable amount of time training, but with his intellect was able to keep up and graduate the academy, even if he was in the lower half of the class. Would work best as a strategist or advisor. When he passed the corner he scratched his temple and muttered a troublesome before going to sit with his friend Choji. The heirs talked for a second before the Nara laid his head down and the Akimichi continued eating. Who said stereotyping was wrong?

Next up was the second born of the Inuzuka clan. Kiba was loud and tactless, but when you combined his taijutsu with his family jutsu and traits he made for a good forerunner scout. Unfortunately his situational awareness was not where it should be. Luckily for him his partner seemed to have it covered as the little white dog on is head named Akamaru immediately looked into the dark corner and even wagged its tail once in greeting. Naruto just grinned in return showing off his slightly larger canines.

Not too long after what sounded like a stampede of angry rhinos could be heard heading towards the academy. Soon a blonde and pink haired duo charged into the room screaming about who had gotten there first. Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno, co-captains of the Sasuke fan club. Ino, daughter of the head of the interrogation unit, and Sakura, daughter of a prominent council member. Ino was adept at her family's jutsu but didn't have much of anything else. Sakura was a walking encyclopedia, and that was it. In Naruto's opinion they were nothing but useless fan girls. Needless to say neither of them noticed him as they fought over who would sit next to Sasuke.

Somewhere along the way the cannon fodder started to appear. Those that were even more useless than the fan girls and more than likely wouldn't make it through the first month. None of that mattered to Naruto as he patiently waited for the last person to arrive that actually mattered. He didn't have to wait long as five minutes before the start of the meeting the door slid open and in walked a raven haired girl with a thick jacket and blind looking eyes. They were lavender colored and with no discernible pupil.

Hinata Hyuuga, heiress to the Hyuuga clan and wielder of the Byakugan. The Byakugan was an eye blood line limit that when used gave the wielder 360 degree vision, as well as the ability to see through certain objects. She was adept at her families gentle fist but at times seemed too kind hearted. With her eyes she would work great as a scout.

She let her eyes wander over the classroom once before heading towards the darkest corner of the room and asking in a light voice completely bereft of her usual stutter, which caught the entire classrooms attention, "Naruto-san, would you like to sit next to me today?" This got confused stares from the cannon fodder as well as the four that had not noticed him before.

That is until a chuckle came from the corner she was looking at and Naruto seemed to melt into plain view. "Sorry Hinata-san, but I think I'm going to stay back here for now."

She smiled and nodded in return. "As you wish Naruto-san." She said as she sat down in the back row in the chair closest to him. Everything was quiet until someone decided to speak up.

"Hey Naruto, what do you think you're doing here, don't you know this is a meeting for ninjas only, not failures? Ow! Akamaru, what the hell?!" Kiba yelled when his partner dug his claws into the side of his head.

"Yeah baka! And what's with the new clothes?! Trying to look better than Sasuke-kun?" Sakura screeched at ear piercing levels. Naruto instead of answering tapped his finger on his forehead protector before leaning back against the wall with a happy smirk on his face. Sakura just huffed and turned her attention back to Sasuke. Everyone else just wondered what was up with the new look, and more importantly attitude. Usually he'd be jumping up and down around Sakura trying to get her attention.

They didn't have long to think about it before Iruka slid open the door and walked in. Before he could start his congratulation speech however, Kiba decided to open his mouth again. "Hey Iruka-sensei, I thought this was a ninja only meeting. What's Naruto doing here when he obviously failed?" Some of his classmates nodded since they wanted to know as well.

"Well from his forehead protector I'd say he is a ninja. Now sit down and let me finish. A true ninja skill is to know when to be silent." He got a few snickers from this as well as a slight blush from an embarrassed Kiba. Before long he went through his speech and started the team lists. The first six were of course made up of cannon fodder.

"Team 7 will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno…" at this Sakura jumped up victoriously and shoved it in Ino's face, "… and Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka finished the three man cell, causing sakura to slump in defeat but got no reaction from her two new teammates.

"Team 8 will be Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka." There was no real reaction except for Kiba eyeing Hinata. "Team 9 is still in circulation so lastly we have Team 10, Ino Yamanaka, Skikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi." This didn't surprise anyone since it was just a reformation of their parent's team. Ino still decided to complain that she was put on a team with people that were always either eating (Choji) or sleeping (Skikamaru). "We will now break for lunch. Meet back here in an hour to meet your Jounin sensei. Dismissed."

**AN: This idea has been stuck for awhile so I decided to write it out. If you think you might like where it's going please review and tell me so. I will most likely continue this if enough people review. I'll probably continue it anyway, but review will remind me and might make me right faster. So yeah, please review. Please? **


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